


Destroyer of Worlds

by guineapiggie



Category: Rogue One: A Star Wars Story (2016), Star Wars - All Media Types
Genre: Drabble, Gen, Inspired By Tumblr, Short and evil, Suicide
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-05-01
Updated: 2017-05-01
Packaged: 2018-10-26 11:38:56
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 354
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10786008
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/guineapiggie/pseuds/guineapiggie
Summary: Galen Erso’s eyes reflect the universe that he helped create – a galaxy without stars.Leia wants to hate him. She does – he killed them. Her father. Her mother. Her people. Her home.She hates him. She hates Galen Erso.





	Destroyer of Worlds

**Author's Note:**

  * For [RapidashPatronus](https://archiveofourown.org/users/RapidashPatronus/gifts).



> Inspired by [this tumblr post](http://rapidashpatronus.tumblr.com/post/160197045811/hey-kids-heres-a-fun-game-imagine-galen-didnt), saying " imagine Galen didn’t die on Eadu and had to learn that the Death Star he built killed his Stardust". Which was evil and... I had to add to the evilness of it.
> 
> Title references J. Robert Oppenheimer's "Now I am become death, the destroyer of worlds", of course.

 

“I trust that you have everything you need from me now, your Highness?”

Leia looks at the man and it takes all her strength not to shudder at the look in his eyes. Galen Erso’s eyes reflect the universe that he helped create – a galaxy without stars.

She wants to hate him. She does – he killed them. Her father. Her mother. Her people. Her home.

She hates him. She hates Galen Erso.

But she looks at the man and he’s haggard and broken, limp and colourless, and the steel gone from his eyes.

Here’s a man who’s lost a wife, lost a child, lost a life.

And she knows that feeling.

Leia knows what he’s asking. She knows what will happen if she says yes, and a part of her wants to be cruel. A part of her wants to tell him that his work isn’t done, a part of her wants to make him bleed for what he did.

A part of her wants to make him go on with the black hole in his heart, the cold stupid fury in his veins, the dull throbbing in his head that they’re _gone gone gone,_ because that’s what he’s made her face, and Leia hates him for it.

But she has decided that she is not that part of herself.

And so she nods, and says, slowly: “Yes. That’s all, Erso.”

She watches his shoulders sag in relief and a flicker of a smile around his chapped lips as broken blue eyes find hers and he whispers, in a raw pitiful voice utterly unbecoming of this monster, this destroyer of worlds:

“Thank you.”

Leia turns away and doesn’t listen to his heavy steps leave the room. And when a few hours later the guards come running to inform her that Galen Erso shot himself, she doesn’t let them finish their report, just waves a tired hand and sends them on their way.

He is buried on Yavin in an unmarked grave, so to stop the rebels from defacing it – or that’s how she exculpates her decision.

Erso’s eyes haunt her for years to come.

 


End file.
